August 22, 2001

Single Of The Week - SPIRITUALIZED : Stop Your Crying

...which is why we continue to adore Spiritualized....

The hazy, aching world of Spiritualized's Jason Pierce has always been an allegorical place, where love is a metaphor for drugs, and drugs are a metaphor for love. This much we know. But there's a new twist to the old dance on 'Let It Come Down', Spiritualized's imminent album. Amid all the enduringly appealing lovey-druggy double entendres, there's also a fresh directness. It's as though Jason Pierce were on a mission to write straight (as it were), to pen love songs about love. Songs like this one.

'Stop Your Crying' is just a simple tune about feeling the pain of someone you love, swept along by tender strings and stately piano. A massive fanfaring crescendo implies how marvellous it is that human beings can feel this way about each other. Then there's the chorus. "Come on baby, stop your crying now" is totally specific, if you know Pierce has fathered a little girl and now has a whole new realm of emotion to ponder. But it's utterly iconic too, imbued with the resonance of every reference to somebody's 'baby' in all of rock'n'roll. Which is why we continue to adore Spiritualized, and why this song makes us weep.

Kitty Empire

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